Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Encyclopedia
Brunswick-Lüneburg
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...
and a champion of the protestant cause during the early years of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. He was the Prince of Lüneburg and ruled the Lüneburg-Celle subdivision of the Welf family's Brunswick-Lüneburg duchy from 1520 until his death.
He was the son of Henry I, Duke of Lüneburg
Henry I of Lüneburg
Henry the Middle, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg was Prince of Lüneburg from 1486 to 1520.-Life:Henry of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the son of Otto V of Lüneburg and Anna of Nassau, was born in 1468. In 1486, Henry took control of Lüneburg from his mother, who had been regent since the death of Henry’s...
, and Margarete of Saxony, the daughter of Ernest, Elector of Saxony
Ernest, Elector of Saxony
Ernst, Elector of Saxony was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486.-Biography:Ernst was founder of the Ernestine line of Saxon princes, ancestor of George I of Great Britain, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as well as his wife and cousin Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and their...
.
Life
Ernest was born in UelzenUelzen
Uelzen is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a Hanseatic town and an independent municipality....
.
In 1512 he was sent to the court of his mother's brother at Wittenberg
Wittenberg
Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....
, the Wettin elector Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
Frederick III, Elector of Saxony
Frederick III of Saxony , also known as Frederick the Wise , was Elector of Saxony from 1486 to his death. Frederick was the son of Ernest, Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria...
(Frederick the Wise), and received instruction there from Georg Spalatin in the University of Wittenberg; he remained at Wittenberg through the beginning of the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. In 1520 his father, Henry was banned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
and abdicated the same year giving the government of the duchy over to his two sons, Otto and Ernest.
By the retirement of Otto in 1527 Ernest became sole ruler. The condition of his domain was not prosperous. Political considerations doubtless furthered the introduction of the Reformation; amongst the commoners it offered opportunity to restrict the privileges of the nobles and the clergy and from the nobles point of view, the chance to increase the revenues from church and monastery property. The forerunner of the Reformation in Lüneburg
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs...
was a certain Wolf Cyclop, a physician from Zwickau
Zwickau
Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...
, who was not free from the Zwickau enthusiasm. Saner men followed him, such as Gottschalk Cruse, Heinrich Bock, sad Matthäus Mylow.
Ernest was inclined to move slowly, but in 1525 the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...
gave him occasion to call upon the monasteries for lists of their property and to require them to admit Protestant preachers; he promised the elector of Saxony to stand by the Protestant cause. After an attempt of the Roman Catholic party to reinstate his father in 1527 had failed, his course became more decided.
In July, 1527, the first book of discipline was adopted, drawn up by the preachers of Celle
Celle
Celle is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the River Aller, a tributary of the Weser and has a population of about 71,000...
. At a diet
Diet (assembly)
In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...
in August of the same year it was ordered that "God's pure word should be preached everywhere without additions made by men." Between 1527 and 1530 Lutheran preachers were introduced in most parishes, and into the monasteries, not in all cases without compulsion. Ernest went to Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
in 1530 and signed the Confession
Augsburg Confession
The Augsburg Confession, also known as the "Augustana" from its Latin name, Confessio Augustana, is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Lutheran reformation...
. He brought back Urbanus Rhegius
Urbanus Rhegius
Urbanus Henricus Rhegius or Urban Rieger was Protestant Reformer who was active both in Northern and Southern Germany in order to promote Lutheran unity in the Holy Roman Empire.- Life :...
, who worked for the spread of the Reformation (after 1541 as superintendent) and introduced it into the city of Lüneburg. The largest and richest monastery in the land, St. Michael's in Lüneburg, accepted the new order after the death of Abbot Boldewin in 1532. Rhegius died in 1541 and was succeeded by Martin Ondermark, who completed the former's work.
In general it may be said that the preachers were well disposed to the reformed religion, while the people held to the old and only gradually adapted themselves to the new. During the Schmalkald War the land remained true to the Gospel. After 1530 Ernest was the most influential prince of North Germany. He sent Rhegius to Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
when the Reformation there threatened to become revolution and restored order. In the cities of Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
he strengthened the Protestant party against both the Roman Catholics and the enthusiasts, although his efforts were vain in Münster. His influence was also felt in Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
and Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
, in Hoya
Hoya
Hoya is a genus of 200-300 species of tropical plants in the family Apocynaceae , fomerly considered to be in the Asclepiadaceae...
, and in East Friesland.
His most effective work probably was accomplished by his restless activity for the Schmalkald League. He induced the North German cities, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Bremen, Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
, Göttingen, and others to join, and he often became the successful mediator when a rupture was threatened between the overcautious elector of Saxony and the headstrong Philip of Hesse. While Ernest sometimes used harsh measures to accomplish his will, and was actuated by a desire to exalt his position as ruler as well as by higher motives, yet, on the whole, he was faithful to his motto, aliis inseruiendo corcsumor.
His four sons at his death were still minors, but the Protestant Church of Lüneburg was so firmly established that it could survive the regency and the unhappy time of the Schmalkald War, and to this day the church life of Lüneburg bears the character impressed upon it by Ernest the Confessor.
Ancestry
Children
Ernest married Sophia, daughter of Henry V, Duke of MecklenburgHenry V, Duke of Mecklenburg
Henry V, Duke of Mecklenburg, nicknamed the Peaceful, was the reigning Duke of Mecklenburg in the region Mecklenburg-Schwerin, son of the Duke Magnus II and Sophia of Pomerania....
and Ursula of Brandenburg
Ursula of Brandenburg
Ursula, Margravine von Brandenburg was a German noblewoman.She was the daughter of Johann Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg and Margarethe of Saxony....
, on 2 June 1528 in Schwerin
Schwerin
Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The population, as of end of 2009, was 95,041.-History:...
. They had the following children who reached adulthood:
- Francis Otto, Duke of Brunswick-LüneburgFrancis Otto, Duke of Brunswick-LüneburgFrancis Otto, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the Prince of Lüneburg from 1555 to 1559.- Life :When Francis Otto took over the reins of power in 1555, he had to promise the interim government, that had ruled since the death of his father in 1546, that he would comply with a large number of...
(1530–1559), married Elisabeth Magdalena of Brandenburg, daughter of Joachim II Hector of BrandenburgJoachim II Hector, Elector of BrandenburgJoachim II Hector was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg . A member of the House of Hohenzollern, Joachim II was the son of Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg, and his wife Elizabeth of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden...
and Hedwig of Poland. - Frederick (1532–1553)
- Henry VII, Duke of Brunswick-LüneburgHenry III, Duke of Brunswick-LüneburgHenry was duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg from 1559 until 1598 and ruled over the Dannenberg subdivision of the duchy. He was the son of Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.He died in Dannenberg on 19 January 1598....
(1533–1598) married Ursula of Saxe-Lauenberg, daughter of Francis I, Duke of Saxe-LauenburgFrancis I, Duke of Saxe-LauenburgFrancis I of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest child and only son of Duke Magnus I of Saxe-Lauenburg and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , daughter of Duke Henry IV the Evil of Brunswick and Lunenburg... - Margaret (1534–1596), married John, Count of Mansfeld See
- William VI, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1535–1592), married Dorothea of DenmarkDorothea of DenmarkPrincess Dorothea of Denmark was the Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg from 1561 until 1592 as the consort of Duke William the Younger. She was regent for her son George from 1592 to 1596.-Biography:...
, daughter of Christian III of DenmarkChristian III of DenmarkChristian III reigned as king of Denmark and Norway. He was the eldest son of King Frederick I and Anna of Brandenburg.-Childhood:...
. - Elizabeth Ursula (1539–1586), married Otto IV, Count of Holstein-Schauenburg-Pinneburg
- Magdalena Sophia (1540–1586), married Arnold, Count of Bentheim-Steinfurt
- Sophia (1541–1631), married Poppo XVIII, Count of Henneberg-Schleusingen